Locally Made Monday - Waterloo International Funeral Supply

Locally Made Monday - Waterloo International Funeral Supply

It's another Locally Made Monday! And on this Memorial Day, we get a look inside the Waterloo International Funeral Supply- from its origins inside a factory, to a national retail chain.

It's another Locally Made Monday! And on this Memorial Day, we get a look inside the Waterloo International Funeral Supply- from its origins inside a factory, to a national retail chain.

It started 15 years ago as a factory in Waterloo and is now spreading nationally. This is one of the stores that sells memorial products made in the area. In the next year, their business could triple.

The funeral business is often a touchy subject. The Waterloo International Funeral Supply has embraced it.

"We basically take corrugated and metal shells, sometimes wood, of caskets, and convert them into personalized caskets." says Dawn Blomeke

Any kind of personalized casket you want. Their most popular ones are military-themed.

"For instance, this one is the Army, the US Army casket. We do a lot of military, so that's just one of the examples."

They also make urns and other memorial supplies. It started as a chance to do something new.

Blomeke says "We tried to come up with something that China couldn't do as well as we could, and that is kind of an at-need thing. So you know, you can't wait six weeks for a casket to come over from China, you have to have it in the next 24 to 48 hours."

About a year ago, they opened "Til We Meet Again", a retail outlet on Lima Rd and now stores have opened in Phoenix, Arizona, and Wichita, Kansas.